The impact of power on information sharing in e-government

In the digital era, information sharing is of utter importance to improving the quality and benefits of government services. At present, there is a lot of information housed by and distributed among different government agencies, which poses significant challenges and barriers to information sharing and dissemination. This paper presents a research model that examines some crucial factors, including administrative power, trust, perceived risk, and power games, that may affect information sharing in e-Government. The administrative power can be classified as coercive power and coordinated power. Trust, perceived risk, and power games are introduced as moderators of the power on information sharing in the research model. Results of our empirical study indicate that coercive power and coordinated power positively affect information sharing, and such effects are moderated by trust among employees and power games. The research and practical implications of this study are also discussed.